The Bathroom

Now I know that most college students don't have their own bathroom, so with that I will tell you that I find mine very precious.

Not precious as in cute, but precious as in dear to me :)

I think that was one of the first things that turned my thinking around to wanting to live with a roommate. Besides Mikiko of course :)

It's an okay bathroom. Kinda reminds me of a hall, really. Makes me glad I'm a fairly slender person. When you first enter the door opens inward. Which means it's usually more practical to shut it behind you. Of course, it's perfectly willing to help with that and quite often tries to take ones fingers off. But even though it closes at a high rate of speed it NEVER actually closes. It slams to a close and then....stops.

Pet Peeve number one: A heavy door to the bathroom you have to carefully shut so you don't kill yourself.

If you try closing it carefully by turning the knob and closing it, it'll drag you across the floor and slam shut. If you let it go it never closes properly. If you let it go, then half turn the knob to shut it it yanks out of your hand with the loudest sound ever and wakes your cute little roommate shut.

There's no winning with that thing. Now if you've survived with all limbs and your back is to the door there is a tile wall right at your left shoulder. it has little hooks for towels and three light switches. one that lights the hole room, a dim one over the sink, and oddly enough one actually in the shower.

I like the mood lighting it creates to turn on the one in the shower and above the sink and then take a shower and get it all steamy in there :)

On the same wall as the door at your left elbow is a tall slender cupboard. Waste of space really. It's got a bit of room at the bottom, and a shelf up top, and then approximately 6 feet of wasted space. Shame.

So when I arrived I put my detergent in there thinking it was a good place. Miki put hers in there too so it was cool! And then I put my tampons in there.....Dunno what it is about that blasted cupboard but I swear it sucks the smell out of our detergent. Everytime I open the door it is a positive WAVE of perfume that practically bowls me over.

My tampons are now scented >.<

In front of the cupboard is a green mat. This mat is in front of our shower door. I think the shower is pretty neat. It's got a glass door with the lame wimpy metal handle but then it's set into the bathroom. It's good sized. maybe...3-4 feet by 3-4 feet and there is plenty of room above my head. That's a nice change. My shower at home....well if I straightened all the way my hair would brush the ceiling and I used to bash my knuckles while scrubbing my hair all the time :)

The only problem, is that the damn shower head is too short. WTF. I'm not the only 6 feet tall person on campus! No way in Hell! There are PLENTY of ppl taller than I. Girls, probably not. Mostly men. But the rooms in Gentle aren't girl/guy designated. so BLAH.

It's a cool shower though. All tile. Thankfully this summer they finally got around to spraying some sort of rubber on the floor so it's now non-slip. :D

Okay, stop admiring my shower and step back to the door. Take two steps forward and look to your left. There is a small hallway, about....4 steps back there is a toilet. If your claustrophobic, don't attend college. >.<;;;

Look behind you. There's my sink!

Oh, btw, the shower has some weird water problem. The Hot water won't even out unless you have it open all the way. But if it's open all the way it bloody well takes your skin off with the pressure. So I usually spend most of my shower groping behind me with soapy hands having to tweak the faucet or the millionth time.

Now for the sink. It is also pressurized. I didn't realize until yesterday that neither Miki or myself EVER turn the faucet on all the way. I was a little distracted and needed to wash my tea cup out so I turn on the faucet......Water was literally dripping from the mirror and wall and I was positively drenched. Mikiko giggled :D

Above our sink are those ghetto shelf things set under the mirror. You know, with the dinky sliding doors where one will only open if the other is shut? Yeah, Miki and I don't put very much in there really.

But that's not all.

When Miki is sleeping I don't see the need to turn on all the lights in the middle of the night, so I enter the bathroom in the dark. That's fine. Once I'm in there I turn the light on, cause compared to the room it's pretty damned dark in there. One night I didn't turn it on rightaway and saw something extremely creepy:

I can see into my neighbors bathroom.

No joke. There's a pretty good sized gap in the caulking between my floor and wall, and I can see the light streaming through from the other side. And their shadow.

It was when the person on the otherside started singing Opera that I realized why Miki is almost paranoid about keeping the door shut.

I never realized how much that damned fortress door blocked out!

Don't get me wrong, the girl's not bad at singing at all. Actually I'm quite jealous of her Vibrato. BUT it was after midnight and quite loud.

So I shut the door religiously now too.

Pet Peeve number two: A non-private private bathroom. I'm positive they can hear everything we do through there as well.

So I've learned. Keep the door shut and you won't hear what's on the other side. BUT If you're in there, you can hear EVERYTHING. I can hear Miki in the living room typing, humming her singsongs, and tapping her desk droor in that annoying fashion she has when she has no idea she's doing it.

I can hear everything they do next door. AND the bathroom echoes everything.

UGH.

But :) We never have to worry about running out of toilet paper! (And we have a cleaning lady come in once a week that is really super nice)

Regards from Purgatory,

Monica